Presentation - ECV2024-518

Children’s speech development: English (General American English)

Kelly FARQUHARSON, Florida State University, USA (kelly.farquharson@cci.fsu.edu)
Lynn WILLIAMS, East Tennessee State University, USA (williamL@etsu.edu)
Carol STOEL-GAMMON, University of Washington, USA (csg@uw.edu)
Ann BOSMA SMIT, Kansas State University, USA (asmit@ksu.edu)

This chapter addresses the acquisition of General American English (GAE), which is one of more than 25 dialects of American English and is the most commonly used and understood dialect in the United States. General American English is characterized by 24 consonants, 26 word-initial consonant clusters, 18-19 vowels, and 3-4 diphthongs. There are a number of studies of children’s acquisition of General American English that demonstrate children have largely acquired all English consonants by age 5-6 years. Researchers have also focused on children who have speech sound disorders that fall along a spectrum that involves an interaction between articulation and phonology which ranges from motor speech difficulty (e.g., articulation impairment, developmental dysarthria) to linguistic/phonological rules (e.g., speech delay, phonological impairment) with motor planning and/or programming falling between these two (e.g., childhood apraxia of speech). Common speech assessments include standardized articulation assessments (e.g., Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-3, Arizona Articulation Proficiency Scale-4) and assessments that focus on phonological patterns (e.g., Hodson Assessment of Phonological Patterns, Bankson-Bernthal Test of Phonology). The most frequently used intervention for speech sound disorders in children continues to be the traditional articulation approach, but other phonological-based approaches include phonological awareness, minimal pairs, and cycles, along with newer contrastive variations that include multiple oppositions and maximal oppositions.

Key words:
General American English, multilingual, communication, speech, language, children’s development, interdisciplinary, international communities, assessment, intervention

Book chapter:
Farquharson, K., Stoel-Gammon, C., Williams, A.L. & Bosma Smit, A. (2025). English (General American English) speech development. In S. McLeod (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of speech development in languages of the world. Oxford University Press.

Language overview presentation:

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

Scroll to Top